Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/11/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]A beauty Doug. Never knew this bird could look so good! Must've been a hungry morning for these guys. Wonderful shot!! Best, Bob On Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 5:51 PM, Doug Herr <wildlightphoto at earthlink.net>wrote: > The Turkey Vulture isn't one of our prettiest birds, and its eating habits > (not shown) make most of us squeamish. It's a very widespread species, > most often seen soaring overhead with a teetering dihedral. > > Despite the huge amount of time this species spends in the air, it doesn't > have strong flight muscles depending instead on updrafts such as ridge lift > (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ridge_lift) and thermals ( > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermals) to remain aloft. > > For the last several mornings California's Central Valley has been socked > in with dense fog; this and the still air have for all practical purposes > "grounded" the vultures. They can take flight from the ground but their > weak flight muscles limit their un-aided flight to a few hundred meters at > most so instead of fighting gravity they'd rather wait for the fog to clear > and thermals to start. > > http://www.wildlightphoto.com/birds/cathartidae/tuvult03.html > > Technical stuff: R8/DMR, 280mm f/4 APO, shoulder stock, monopod & tree > trunk. Slight horizontal crop. All comments welcome. > > Doug Herr > Birdman of Sacramento > http://www.wildlightphoto.com > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leica Users Group. > See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information > -- Bob Adler Palo Alto, CA http://www.rgaphoto.com